Member of the Month: Mayri Tiido

All eyes were on the Action Agenda lately and this month’s Member of the Month is no stranger to the Action Agenda. Having been part of both the Action Agenda Committee and the Health4Youth, Mayri Tiido is experienced at European Level . The AEGEEan interviewed Mayri about this honour.

The AEGEEan: Congratulations for being member of the month! What was your first thought when you heard the news?
I was like: AAAAWHAAATAAAAAAAAT!!??!?!?!

The AEGEEan: Before we go into all the AEGEE stuff, tell us a little more about yourself!
Who is Mayri in five words?I love creativity, improvisation and dancing, I am hard-working, optimistic and enthusiastic.

You are originally from Estonia, AEGEE Tartu, but currently living in Nijmegen, how do you like it there?I love living in the Netherlands. I feel so connected to Europe, because of the good train/flight connections. I like biking everywhere. I enjoy learning Dutch and practising it with my friends (I even like the pronounciation of harsh “G”). To sum up, I feel kind of good here! To balance the story, I must say that sometimes, I really feel stuck in the bureaucracy. Health insurance, official registration, language courses, job applications. It’s hard to get through that, but luckily, I’m almost there. So I still like being here!

How did you get involved in AEGEE and why did you become so active?I found out about AEGEE in the spring of 2010. I joined with the thought of just going to a Summer University (SU). I got more involved after my SU in Palermo. I couldn’t believe that I could be surrounded by AEGEE spirit in my everyday life. What is more, the thought of AEGEE being an endless pool of opportunities also kept me going. I became more and more active because I felt that I could actually do something, make a change.

I think we can safely state that you are very active at the European level! You were nominated for your past and current achievements, and of course, we all know you will achieve much more in the future.
Can you tell us a bit more about what you have done in AEGEE so far?
My first position at the European level was being a member of the Planning Team 2011, where I was responsible for doing research for the new strategic plan. Since I was there and contributing when the Strategic Plan and first Action Agenda were created, it seemed a natural follow-up to join the ACT (Action Agenda Team). Around that time I also got interested in trainings and especially in being a trainer. I participated in Training4Trainers (April 2012, Warsawa) and thanks to that, I discovered another opportunity in AEGEE. I have been a trainer at ESSU Patra and PRES Nova-Goricia/Goriza. At the moment, I’m the project manager of the Health4Youth project. Another amazing opprtunity! Right now, we’re finalizing our webpage, so we can start sharing awesome information/ideas/tips about healthy lifestyle. We have a lot in mind, so keep tuned! In a year, we wish to let every AEGEE member know about our project and to encourage them to contribute to it. We also want to reach students outside AEGEE, so I hope that we will manage it, thanks to the fact that some locals have new cool members.
If you are interested, you can read my more detailed AEGEE story from the Nordic Stars blog:

What is AEGEE for you in five sentences max?Life is what you make out of it and AEGEE is a great platform to challenge yourself, go beyond your comfort zone, start new things (maybe even follow your dreams) and what is most important: having fun while achieving something!

What is your coolest AEGEE experience so far?I think that it was at the Planning Meeting in Poznan (2011). I was working on an objective for Inclusion of Minorities. In the evening, I felt that it was not good enough and I asked my group mates if they were willing to go to the party an hour later. We started working, but it took so much longer than I estimated. In the end, it was only me and Roald (AEGEE-Utrecht) who continued, but shortly after that, Miguel and Gizem also joined us. People were getting back from the party and we were still working. We finished at 3 am. In the morning we had to finalise our objective suggestion and present it. I was still so tired when I went to present it and I was sleeping in my head the whole time when people gave their comments. I presented our idea and in the end, I was waiting for bashing questions. There were none. Thomas Leszke said: “If you have no objections, accept this proposal with acclamation.” Everybody clapped. That feeling, when something you’ve been working on gets accepted – I will never forget it. I had the same feeling on the stage when Health4Youth got accepted as an official AEGEE-Europe project. Pure happiness!

What will you achieve in AEGEE in 2013?I would like to establish some great partnerships/cooperations for the H4Y project, that will be beneficial for the entire association.

Anything else you really want to share with us?I would like to make a shout-out to my dear Matthijs who is also in AEGEE (trainer, Health4Youth). He always supports me so much and he can work just as crazy as I do. That makes stressful times so much more fun and easy.